BMI The Hampshire Clinic celebrates the new year with a £5 million imaging services upgrade

BMI The Hampshire Clinic's Executive Director Philip Oehley has welcomed the delivery of a new MRI scanner. The state of the art scanner is the first piece of imaging equipment to be delivered to the clinic ahead of the opening of its new purpose built £5 million imaging department in 2011.

The Siemens 1.5 Tesla Advanto MRI scanner, which is about the weight of a double-decker bus, was crane-lifted into the new imaging department on 8 December. The new scanner will be able to provide spinal, neurological, musculo-skeletal, orthopaedic, vascular, urological, abdominal and breast imaging procedures.

In January 2011, the hospital will also welcome the installation of the latest GE Optima 660 CT scanner. Both the MRI and CT scanners, which will complement the hospitals existing X-ray, ultrasound and mammography departments, will undergo installation and final preparation before the new unit is open and able to welcome its first patients in early 2011.

The investment into new equipment at BMI The Hampshire Clinic has been made possible through a partnership between the hospital’s parent company BMI Healthcare and Alliance Medical Ltd. The partnership and joint investment will allow the clinic to increase the number of services it is able to provide to the local community and will form the centrepiece of the clinics wider development plans which include the refurbishment of the out patient facilities.

Magda Coetzee, Radiology Manager at BMI The Hampshire Clinic, said: “We are all very excited about the delivery of this new state of the art piece of equipment and look forward very much to the opening of the new department early next year. This investment will allow The Hampshire Clinic to significantly reduce a patient’s journey time from their first outpatient appointment to diagnosis, therefore reducing their overall treatment time. Also, because the imaging team and consultants will be based in one unit we will be able to deliver a 24-hour turnaround on results which previously could have taken up to three days. This service, unique to the area, will hopefully lessen the anxiety associated with waiting for important test results four our patients.”

The final stage, which will join the new imaging department to the existing building, will occur with the minimal disruption and will also see improvements made to the existing out-patients department and consultation area.

Executive Director Philip Oehley at BMI The Hampshire Clinic commented: “The delivery of this new MRI scanner is one of the final parts of the puzzle that needs to be slotted in before we are able to officially open our new imaging department early next year. All the consultants, nurses and staff at the hospital are delighted with the benefits that these new pieces of equipment will bring to the local community and our patients and we look forward to welcoming the first patients to the new diagnostic unit in the spring of 2011.”